Yuki Tsunoda: Let’s try to make it to the finals of qualifying

AlphaTauri’s best result in the second free practice session of the Australian Grand Prix was Yuki Tsunoda’s eleventh place. The Japanese racer expects to compete for the qualifying final. His teammate Nick de Vries showed the 17th fastest time and refrains from making any predictions.

Yuki Tsunoda (11th): “The first session started with a problem with the rear tires, but I’m happy with our pace in the second session. In the first part of the free races there were traffic problems due to GPS, so I had to slow down considerably in the last sector. As a result, the tires did not warm up properly and I had insufficient grip at the start of the fast lap.

We don’t know where we stand compared to the rest, but the team will focus on their work – we will try to put all the components together tomorrow.

It’s going to be a tough fight. We have set ourselves the task of reaching the final of qualifying, but first we have to get to the second part. The battle in the middle group is very tight, so even the slightest mistake can be costly. However, the car is better than last year, so we will evaluate the data collected and see what we can do tomorrow.”

Nick deVries (17th): “Today’s training took place in different weather conditions, but thanks to this we learned a lot and tried different solutions. Problems with GPS didn’t help, especially given the track’s characteristics, where tire warm-up plays an important role. As there is a ring road in Melbourne, a narrow strip of grass separates the walls from the track – there is no room for error in such conditions.

We had a good first training session and before the second we adjusted the settings to better understand the work of the new products. Now we understand them better, but we can say something concrete in the evening after analyzing the collected telemetry. You have to keep working to get better in the third practice.”